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Subject:
From:
Stacey A Bentz <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 1 Jan 1999 13:01:16 EST
Content-Type:
text/plain
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text/plain (82 lines)
Has anyone seen the *reading rainbow* episode on birth?  Levar in the
foreground whispering "and now it's time for the birth".  Meanwhile, in
the back ground Mom is being rolled onto her side for an epidural and
everyone's dressed in scrubs.  Feet in stirrups, episiotomy...  Yes, and
of course a bottle!
I had to tell my four-year-old "no, brother won't have ALL THAT BLOOD on
his head"
The thongs they put on TV for kids these days!

Stacey, LLLL, Lawrenceville, NJ

On Fri, 1 Jan 1999 07:23:00 -0600 Kathy Dettwyler <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>I agree with Linda Smith's take on nasal aspirators and "oral rape".
>I've
>been watching a new show on The Learning Channel called "The Baby
>Show."
>Two episodes each day (1-2 pm central time), each episode follows a
>pregnant
>couple through the pregnancy and delivery and then makes one final
>visit
>several weeks after the birth.  Fascinating to see how birth is
>managed in
>today's hospitals (a lot different even from my last one in 1991), and
>some
>variety in positioning, coaching, etc.
>
>I cringe at half the stuff they do -- like "break the waters --
>epidural --
>pitocin -- epidural -- pitocin" over and over.  And at how it seems to
>be
>routine now for the baby to be vigorously suctioned (both mouth and
>both
>nostrils) when only the head has been delivered.  They actually tell
>the
>mother to stop pushing once the head is out, so the delivering doctor
>can
>suction the baby before the rest of the body is born.  Reminds me of
>"partial birth abortions"!  And of course they are always so damn
>quick to
>cut the umbilical cord that they *must* get the baby breathing right
>away.
>Sigh.  Would someone please explain to me why the umbilical cord is
>cut so
>quickly.  Why don't they gently lay the baby on the mother's abdomen
>and
>just LEAVE IT ALONE.  As long as the umbilical cord is pulsing, it is
>delivering oxygen to the baby, so the baby doesn't need to be
>breathing
>right away.  On one episode, the baby is laid on the mother's abdomen
>and
>the mother is trying to caress and hold the baby, and bring it up
>closer to
>her, and the nurses keep swatting the mother's hands away so they
>clean and
>dry the baby -- as though the mother *ought* to be repulsed by the
>look and
>feel and smell of her baby right after birth.  Most of the time, the
>first
>good look the mother gets of the baby is after the baby has been
>swaddled,
>so only a tiny patch of face is visible, the rest is just this big
>stiff
>bundle.  Poor babies, poor mothers.  A few mothers on this show
>breastfeed
>-- others are very careful not to say whether they are breastfeeding
>or
>bottle-feeding, and some bottle-feed during the show.  Twice I've seen
>babies being fed with those curved bottles, but the bottles were being
>held
>upside down!  Duh.  Obviously I have too much spare time on my hands,
>to be
>watching TV in the middle of the day.
>
>Kathy Dettwyler
>

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